Blackhawks look to stay hot against Canucks

The Blackhawks look to extend their season-long win streak to six games when they host the Canucks on Thursday at the United Center.

Chicago scored five unanswered goals in the third period en route to a 6-2 win over the Oilers on Tuesday in Edmonton. Four of the five goals were scored in a 2:48 span.

Patrick Kane had a goal and assist to extend his point streak to 12 games. He has 10 goals and 18 assists during that stretch.

The win pulled Chicago (21-24-9) within three points of Vancouver (24-24-6) for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Blackhawks trail St. Louis (53 points), Colorado (52) and Arizona and Edmonton (51) in the standings. Despite being only three points from a playoff spot, the Blackhawks are also only three points away from the bottom of the conference.

The Blackhawks announced Thursday morning that center David Kampf will miss three to four weeks with a right foot injury that Scott Powers of The Athletic reports is a small broken bone. With Kampf out, Brendan Perlini will draw into the lineup on the third line at wing and Marcus Kruger will move to center.

Defenseman Gustav Forsling will replace Carl Dahlstrom in the lineup as Forsling faces the team that drafted him in 2014. Rookie goaltender Collin Delia will start net. He’s 5-2-3 with a 2.99 goals-against average and .922 save percentage this season.

Thursday’s game will have four North Dakota alumni: Drake Caggiula and Jonathan Toews (Chicago) and Brock Boeser and Troy Stecher (Vancouver). Boeser, Caggiula and Strecher won the NCAA championship together in 2016.

Rookie winger Elias Pettersson leads the Canucks in scoring with 47 points (24 goals, 23 assists) in only 43 games. Bo Horvat and Boeser are second and third, respectively with 42 and 36 points.

Vancouver will be without top defenseman Alex Edler, who fell face-first on the ice after his stick was caught in Jakub Voracke’s skate Monday in Philadelphia. Edler left the game and was diagnosed with a concussion.

The Canucks could also be missing winger Sven Baertschi, who sat out Monday’s game since he “woke up not feeling well” according to coach Travis Green.

Jacob Markstrom is expected to start against the Blackhawks. He’s 20-15-5 with a 2.78 GAA and .910 save percentage this season.

It’s the second of three meetings this season between the Blackhawks and Canucks. In the first game, Chicago fell 4-2 on Oct. 31 in Vancouver.

Blackhawks

Caggiula — Toews — Kane

DeBrincat — Strome — Kahun

Saad — Kruger — Perlini

Kunitz — Anisimov — Hayden

Keith — Seabrook

Dahstrom — Murphy

Koekkoek — Gustafsson

Delia

Ward

Canucks

Goldobin — Horvat — Boeser

Roussel — Pettersson — Leivo

Granlund — Sutter — Virtanen

Eriksson — Beagle — Motte

Tanev — Gudbranson

Hutton — Stecher

Pouliot — Biega

Markstrom

Demko

How to Watch

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: United Center, Chicago

TV: NBC Sports Chicago